Wasting public money

Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, January 12, 2018.

The GOP-led state legislature is running up quite a tab in court with taxpayers footing the bill. It has spent almost $7 million defending against lawsuits attacking its redistricting efforts, News & Record reporter Taft Wireback wrote last week.

And the tab keeps rising, in spite of court decisions against the GOP redistricting efforts, the latest coming Tuesday from a panel of federal court judges. But — of course — legislators plan to keep fighting.

Fighting to maintain an unfair electoral advantage, no matter who initiates it or what party it serves, should upset all taxpayers. This is money that could be better spent for many better causes, like in our schools.

Lawyers are expensive, as are experts like $500-an-hour Stanford University law professor Nathaniel Persily, who was hired to draw fair maps when the state legislature failed to do so. And when the state loses, it’s often on the hook for the plaintiffs’ legal fees. Ultimately, taxpayers pay the bill.

“I am quite frustrated at the waste of taxpayer money used to continue to defend unconstitutional districts and to fight more fairly drawn districts,” state Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Greensboro), whose House district is one of the state’s more racially gerrymandered, told the News & Record. “What we really need is an independent process, now more than ever.”

Some Republican legislators agree with her, like state Reps. Jon Hardister (R-Whitsett) and Chuck McGrady (R-Henderson), who were among the primary co-sponsors of a bipartisan bill to create a nonpartisan redistricting commission. The bill drew support from both sides of the aisle, but not enough.

We need more champions on both sides to step forward and fight for fair redistricting. Yes, Democrats played rough too, but this cycle has to stop somewhere.

Republicans have an opportunity to make a difference right now by cooperating with the courts and passing legislation calling for an independent redistricting commission to draw voting districts in the future.

We need to get past the heavy costs of these continuous court battles, not to mention the damage to the state’s reputation and to voter confidence. And the people would finally get something substantial: elections in which voters choose the candidates, instead of the candidates choosing their voters.

http://www.journalnow.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-wasting-public-money/article_5f5f32ab-c3ed-516d-9977-36b713d80149.html